These lovely stones are a material I'd never seen before but that's not surprising. It seems that new varieties of jasper appear and disappear
from the marketplace constantly. I can't find anything on the web about it, although presumably it comes from Montegrosso d'Asti
in the Italian region of Piedmont. The black is lustrous and deep, reminiscent of the famous deep black form of Bruneau jasper. The lovely landscaped
bands make it all the more wonderful.

The barrel beads are treated agates, supposedly made the same way the famous Dzi beads were made, that is if you
believe the Dzi beads were made by man. Whatever the case with the Dzi, man's attempts to counterfeit them have yielded beautiful agates such as these.
Jasper and agate are both varieties of quartz. According to Dr. Pough, the distinction is that agate, a
banded version of translucent chalcedony, is
microscopically crystallized with the crystals arranged as layers of slender upright fibers in parallel bands. Jaspers are also microscopically grained
but are not translucent and usually contain appreciable quantities of impurities. So then, what is the beautiful, translucent band right through the centerpiece stone? Inquiring minds need to know!

I would write more about agates but my famous agate book is being held hostage by my friend who helped me during
theFirestorm 2007 evacuation here in San Diego. It has taken four years since the
Cedar Fire to replace a few prized out-of-print books and I didn't want to lose them again! Some of them, including the massive tome on agates went into
my friend's car and from there into his own studio. Fortunately this fire didn't reach my home, but neither did the agate book. I asked him about it and
he said if I ever wanted to see it again, put two hundred dollar bills in a baggie and... I think he was kidding.

The earrings are wonderfully fun! I know some people can't imagine wearing two different earrings like this, but you just might want to give it a
try.